Villanueva writes ....it brought back so many memories of Mom's push for assimilation at the loneliness of the "other" in a foreign place, of California, of how we are not meant to be alone, and the lengths we will go to not to be alone (pg. 39). Villanueva uses the term assimilation in a way which I believe Wikipedia defines best: the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another and by cultural assimilation as a political response to the demographic fact of multi-ethnicity which encourages absorption of the minority into the dominant culture. It is opposed to affirmative philosophy like multiculturalism, for example, which recognizes and seeks to maintain differences. It is going to be extremely interesting to see how many sites, communities, software, and games use the term in the same way and how they do it. It should be an eye opening experience where i probably would of never thought to do before this assignment. If and when I participate in these genres, I have never thought deeply about the way it is/was constructed and meant to be viewed.
According to Villanueva, biculturalism is:
a. cultures that swing both ways
b. an equal ease with two cultures
c. the tensions within, which are caused by being unable to deny the old or the
new
d. none of the above
T/F: Villanueva in Spin in English attempts to convert a GED into a diploma (and is denied) sees the school library's extension that looks like the one he designed.
Villanueva, Victor. "Spic in English", American Academic of Color. Urban, Il: NCTE. 34-50.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Menu-Driven Indeed
I feel the "Race: The Power of Illusion" website is dead on with a "menu-driven" concept of race. Nakamura states it is certainly plausible to read websites that create race-regulating hierarchical menu's as lineal descendants of the dominant racial mythology that has enforced such taxonimical sleighs of band as the famed "one-drop" rule for determining the race of interracial peoples of partially African descent (Menu-Driven Identities: Making race happen online, 119). The website has that feel exactly. You start off by having quite a few choices on how to enter the site. This then gives you more choices for specifics on race. It basically allows you to go on a journey about racism throughout the times and explains how the way it was has paved the road to how it is, and will continue for how its going to be. Within these categories you are given more options and more menus to chose from. The website entails most of the key characteristics of a menu-driven website. The website isn't asking your race specifically, it is simply offering tidbits of information in regards to race and how it pertains to you. It however encompasses the "clickable" menus, the "drop downs" of categories that seem in order, like a timeline. Even though it is dead on, I don't believe it goes beyond.
Nakamura, Lisa. Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. New York. Routledge, 2002. Print.
Nakamura, Lisa. Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. New York. Routledge, 2002. Print.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Cybertyping and Identity tourism
Cybertyping is basically stereotyping but in cyberspace. So, we can take the definition of stereotype, which is simply a negative view of a person/individual or group who share certain characteristics or qualities. They are more or less assumptions based on other assumptions that in turn, create and take on a vicious cycle of negativity. Nakamura describes that cybertypes are the images that arise when the fears, anxieties, and desires of privileged Western users are scripted into a textural/graphical environment that is in constant flux and revision (Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet, 2002).
Identity tourism is using another identity when on the web. This can be a different gender or race, other than your own. People do this when either playing video games, or on the Internet itself, generally speaking. This is looked at as "touring" other identities based on general stereotypes we might encounter daily based on our race or gender. If done the right way and consciously, identity tourism can help debunk these stereotypes and could potentially expand the boundaries of online community. Identity tourism allows us the freedom to play out of character, it suggests mobility within space for the purposes of curiosity, pleasure, or experience.
Their is plenty of cybertyping occurring in Streetfighter 2. Obviously they fighters to choose from are based of their country, so in fact they would create a character to symbolize the typical stereotype. The character from India's name is Dhalsim who wears skulls around his neck, can shoot fire, and expand his limbs, which emulates the characteristics we believe to be true of their culture and their beliefs. As well as the big dude from the USSR, and the black dude from USA with his boxing gloves and funky hairdo. The creators obviously make them to be the most stereotypical that viewers/gamers can relate to. The types of identity tourism that occur is simply the way you play the character. Depending on which character you choose, the way you fight and what buttons or moves you use is dependent on that.
Nakamura, Lisa. Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. New York Routledge, 2002. Print.
Nakamura, Lisa (2007). Race In/For Cyberspace. In D. Bell and B. M. Kennedy (Ed.), The Cybercultures Reader (2nd Ed.). London and New York: Routeledge. Print.
Identity tourism is using another identity when on the web. This can be a different gender or race, other than your own. People do this when either playing video games, or on the Internet itself, generally speaking. This is looked at as "touring" other identities based on general stereotypes we might encounter daily based on our race or gender. If done the right way and consciously, identity tourism can help debunk these stereotypes and could potentially expand the boundaries of online community. Identity tourism allows us the freedom to play out of character, it suggests mobility within space for the purposes of curiosity, pleasure, or experience.
Their is plenty of cybertyping occurring in Streetfighter 2. Obviously they fighters to choose from are based of their country, so in fact they would create a character to symbolize the typical stereotype. The character from India's name is Dhalsim who wears skulls around his neck, can shoot fire, and expand his limbs, which emulates the characteristics we believe to be true of their culture and their beliefs. As well as the big dude from the USSR, and the black dude from USA with his boxing gloves and funky hairdo. The creators obviously make them to be the most stereotypical that viewers/gamers can relate to. The types of identity tourism that occur is simply the way you play the character. Depending on which character you choose, the way you fight and what buttons or moves you use is dependent on that.
Nakamura, Lisa. Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. New York Routledge, 2002. Print.
Nakamura, Lisa (2007). Race In/For Cyberspace. In D. Bell and B. M. Kennedy (Ed.), The Cybercultures Reader (2nd Ed.). London and New York: Routeledge. Print.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Princess Frankenstein Monster?
In Super Mario Bros. 2, it is hard to be compelling in stating there are obvious gender stereotypes that Princess, Mario, Luigi, and Toad reflect and complicate. However, there are a couple, if not a few. In the beginning of the game, you have to choose which player to start with. I always chose the Princess to play with. Is it because I relate to her because she is in fact female? Nah, I picked her because when making her jump, or run + jump, she could actually float, which is extremely beneficial in the game.
An obvious stereotype is how women are looked at to be these helpless beings, waiting to be rescued by her prince charming, or knight in shining armor, as she plays the victim. So the “strong” man goes through all sorts of hurdles and battles to rescue her.
Personally, I don’t believe this game offers multiple “gender-subject configurations”, but for the sake of argument, I guess I will pick a couple. Princess could fall under the “Lara as Female Frankenstein Monster”, although her pink dress and crown might detract from that, she is still a hard core fighting machine. But she is definitely not some mutant offspring, nor a vicious, combative force. So more realistically, she ensues the “Lara as a Positive Role Model” because she is the only female character or avatar amongst the male avatars. “Violent, sexy, and capable women like Lara Croft might be better role models for girls than the few games that have been targeted specifically at girls, such as Ms. Pacman, Barbie Fashion Designer and the nonviolent, social games produced by Purple Moon” (Schleiner, 224). This actually leads back to the stereotype of women. Maybe we would like to see Barbie kick some ass while designing fashion and still make it back home in time to cook supper.
Schleiner, Anne-Marie. "Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons? Gender and Gender-Role Subversion in Computer Adventure Games." MIT Press. 34.3 (2001): 221-226. Print.
An obvious stereotype is how women are looked at to be these helpless beings, waiting to be rescued by her prince charming, or knight in shining armor, as she plays the victim. So the “strong” man goes through all sorts of hurdles and battles to rescue her.
Personally, I don’t believe this game offers multiple “gender-subject configurations”, but for the sake of argument, I guess I will pick a couple. Princess could fall under the “Lara as Female Frankenstein Monster”, although her pink dress and crown might detract from that, she is still a hard core fighting machine. But she is definitely not some mutant offspring, nor a vicious, combative force. So more realistically, she ensues the “Lara as a Positive Role Model” because she is the only female character or avatar amongst the male avatars. “Violent, sexy, and capable women like Lara Croft might be better role models for girls than the few games that have been targeted specifically at girls, such as Ms. Pacman, Barbie Fashion Designer and the nonviolent, social games produced by Purple Moon” (Schleiner, 224). This actually leads back to the stereotype of women. Maybe we would like to see Barbie kick some ass while designing fashion and still make it back home in time to cook supper.
Schleiner, Anne-Marie. "Does Lara Croft Wear Fake Polygons? Gender and Gender-Role Subversion in Computer Adventure Games." MIT Press. 34.3 (2001): 221-226. Print.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Know your role....or not....
Avatar dichotomizes sex and dichotomizes gender from one world, which is real life, and from Pandora, the virtual.
In the real world, it showcases the men as the prominent sex. This is mainly because the majority of them are soldiers. They throw their machismo around, they show they are in charge, with a take no prisoner attitude. It’s all about fighting, shooting, blowing things up, keeping their eye on the prize, and more or less, conquering. The role Sigourney Weaver plays in the real world is a scientist whose role is of less importance to that of her male superior, even though without her they would not be able to access or habitat Pandora, but is still a tough, semi-crude lady.
In the virtual, or Pandora, the woman actually hold all the great roles within their culture/people. The woman role varies from one being a shaman of her clan, one being the daughter of the shaman, as well as the God they pray to, is a she (Wilson). Even Sigourney’s role in Pandora turns more motherly and nurturing.
Wilson, Tracy V. "Is James Cameron's 'Avatar' sexist?." HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks, Inc., 12/17/2009Web. 1 Oct 2010..
Avatar reflects Stone’s idea about cyborg envy because of the longing of the male for the female (Stone, 450). In Avatar Jake in the virtual world of Pandora falls in love. He attaches himself to a female who saves his life and she shows him the ways of the Navvi. What isn’t desirable about being a cyborg? It is a way to be able to use it as a means to escape your everyday existence. It’s a way to detach you from you, who everybody always sees you at, or knows you by. Stone states that penetrating the screen involves a state change from the physical, biological space of the embodied viewer to the symbolic, metaphorical ‘consensual hallucination’ of cyberspace; a space that is a locus of intense desire for refigured embodiment. In Avatar, Jake is able to free himself of his disability and is able to walk and run in the virtual. He became an extension of his real self, but in a way, euphorically became better. In order to enter cyberspace is to physically put on cyberspace (Stone, 450). Jake had to physically become one with the Avatar, he had to relearn how to use the body, how to learn the language, the ways of the people, how to physically interact with his surroundings.
Stone, Allucquere Rosanne. "Will The Real Body Please Stand UP?." The Cybercultures reader. Ed. David Bell and Barbara M. Kennedy. New York: Routledge, 2000. Print.
In the real world, it showcases the men as the prominent sex. This is mainly because the majority of them are soldiers. They throw their machismo around, they show they are in charge, with a take no prisoner attitude. It’s all about fighting, shooting, blowing things up, keeping their eye on the prize, and more or less, conquering. The role Sigourney Weaver plays in the real world is a scientist whose role is of less importance to that of her male superior, even though without her they would not be able to access or habitat Pandora, but is still a tough, semi-crude lady.
In the virtual, or Pandora, the woman actually hold all the great roles within their culture/people. The woman role varies from one being a shaman of her clan, one being the daughter of the shaman, as well as the God they pray to, is a she (Wilson). Even Sigourney’s role in Pandora turns more motherly and nurturing.
Wilson, Tracy V. "Is James Cameron's 'Avatar' sexist?." HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks, Inc., 12/17/2009Web. 1 Oct 2010.
Avatar reflects Stone’s idea about cyborg envy because of the longing of the male for the female (Stone, 450). In Avatar Jake in the virtual world of Pandora falls in love. He attaches himself to a female who saves his life and she shows him the ways of the Navvi. What isn’t desirable about being a cyborg? It is a way to be able to use it as a means to escape your everyday existence. It’s a way to detach you from you, who everybody always sees you at, or knows you by. Stone states that penetrating the screen involves a state change from the physical, biological space of the embodied viewer to the symbolic, metaphorical ‘consensual hallucination’ of cyberspace; a space that is a locus of intense desire for refigured embodiment. In Avatar, Jake is able to free himself of his disability and is able to walk and run in the virtual. He became an extension of his real self, but in a way, euphorically became better. In order to enter cyberspace is to physically put on cyberspace (Stone, 450). Jake had to physically become one with the Avatar, he had to relearn how to use the body, how to learn the language, the ways of the people, how to physically interact with his surroundings.
Stone, Allucquere Rosanne. "Will The Real Body Please Stand UP?." The Cybercultures reader. Ed. David Bell and Barbara M. Kennedy. New York: Routledge, 2000. Print.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Humanizing Computers
I checked out the new Apple + Intel commercial and definitely agree with Lupton about how we humanize computers. In this advertisement there is a group of individuals in white body suits, like scientists, to take out the Intel chip that is inside a personal computer (PC) and put it inside a MAC computer. The advertisements’ commentary states that the Intel has been living a dull life, trapped within a PC, and finally gets to be where it should be, doing what it is capable of doing, more or less. The commentary/commercial ends with: “Imagine the possibilities”, after a successful procedure of “setting the Intel free” ("Apple + Intel commercial").
I interpreted the commercial to basically be performing a transplant. This is how we have humanized the computer. The scientists are basically representative of doctor’s extracting a perfectly good organ out of a bad or unhealthy body, showing that if in the right body, the performance capabilities are endless.
Computers, as represented in advertising, are prone to many of the life experiences that humans experience (Lupton, 426). Lupton goes on to write about other advertisements that depict computers being humanized. One advertisement where a computer was delivered by a medical practitioner because the catch line was that: “NCE can deliver color notebooks now”. Another showing a computer flat lining like it’s had heart failure (Lupton, 426-427).
We do grow to build a relationship with our computers, whether it’s a love/hate, hate to love, or love to hate relationship, it is a relationship nonetheless. The advertisements try to reach us on that level of knowing that we become attached to them. I myself have to admit that I would love to perform a “transplant” to my computer. I would be simply amazed if I could take the Intel out of my PC and transplant it into a MAC. I am also amazed at surgeon for all the same reasons, except that they do it to actual humans. These observations are useful for understanding the blurriness and importance of the computer/user relationship. The relationship is symbiotic: users invest certain aspects of themselves and their cultures when…..viewed as contributing to individual images and experiences of their selves and their bodies (Lupton, 427).
There is nothing that is most significant that I have learned so far in class because I feel everything that has been read or discussed thus far is all significant and is all profoundly related in my understanding of technology as a whole. What I will state though, is how interested I am in the whole embodiment/disembodiment aspect of technology. I understand an am beyond aware of where technology is headed, and how fast it is advancing. It is also very understandable how we, myself included, can have or will become so engulfed in it. It is easy to see how we can get so involved digitally, yet zoned out in real life. You will be able to immerse yourself in simulated environments instead of just looking at them through a small rectangular window become an inhabitant, a participant, not merely a spectator (Robins, 228).
What am I going to take with me outside of class into RL is that, even as an aspiring graphic designer, who is merely more than willing to dive head first into technology and all that goes with it, there are still many who are scared of it. Those who believe there needs to be a separation between both worlds, that the line separating the two should not be completely blurred.
Bell, David, and Barbara M. Kennedy. eds. The Cybercultures Reader. 2nd Ed.
London: Routledge. 422-432. Print.
"Apple + Intel commercial." MY KEWEGO. Web. 22 Sep 2010.
.
I interpreted the commercial to basically be performing a transplant. This is how we have humanized the computer. The scientists are basically representative of doctor’s extracting a perfectly good organ out of a bad or unhealthy body, showing that if in the right body, the performance capabilities are endless.
Computers, as represented in advertising, are prone to many of the life experiences that humans experience (Lupton, 426). Lupton goes on to write about other advertisements that depict computers being humanized. One advertisement where a computer was delivered by a medical practitioner because the catch line was that: “NCE can deliver color notebooks now”. Another showing a computer flat lining like it’s had heart failure (Lupton, 426-427).
We do grow to build a relationship with our computers, whether it’s a love/hate, hate to love, or love to hate relationship, it is a relationship nonetheless. The advertisements try to reach us on that level of knowing that we become attached to them. I myself have to admit that I would love to perform a “transplant” to my computer. I would be simply amazed if I could take the Intel out of my PC and transplant it into a MAC. I am also amazed at surgeon for all the same reasons, except that they do it to actual humans. These observations are useful for understanding the blurriness and importance of the computer/user relationship. The relationship is symbiotic: users invest certain aspects of themselves and their cultures when…..viewed as contributing to individual images and experiences of their selves and their bodies (Lupton, 427).
There is nothing that is most significant that I have learned so far in class because I feel everything that has been read or discussed thus far is all significant and is all profoundly related in my understanding of technology as a whole. What I will state though, is how interested I am in the whole embodiment/disembodiment aspect of technology. I understand an am beyond aware of where technology is headed, and how fast it is advancing. It is also very understandable how we, myself included, can have or will become so engulfed in it. It is easy to see how we can get so involved digitally, yet zoned out in real life. You will be able to immerse yourself in simulated environments instead of just looking at them through a small rectangular window become an inhabitant, a participant, not merely a spectator (Robins, 228).
What am I going to take with me outside of class into RL is that, even as an aspiring graphic designer, who is merely more than willing to dive head first into technology and all that goes with it, there are still many who are scared of it. Those who believe there needs to be a separation between both worlds, that the line separating the two should not be completely blurred.
Bell, David, and Barbara M. Kennedy. eds. The Cybercultures Reader. 2nd Ed.
London: Routledge. 422-432. Print.
"Apple + Intel commercial." MY KEWEGO. Web. 22 Sep 2010.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Peg-Community or not?
I definitely agree with Bauman's dismissal of many contemporary forms of something-like-community as "peg communities"-as coat pegs on which we choose to temporarily hang parts of our identities (Bell, 255).
As social networking plays an important and prominent role in my life. I still don't give my full "self" or identity on it, I only give a part of who I am. Little snipets and tidbits of my life, or of my identity. Mostly on facebook my statuses are about school, work, and every now and again my home life. But these are only part of my identity at that particular moment of my life when I update. That is not who I am at every second, every moment of my being. Only those who know me in real life know my true identity, but even in that sense, it's not my full identity, just what they are allowed to know or see about me. But my social/virtual communities are an extension of who I am, nonetheless.
For some people, yes, virtual communities are "peg communities" that are "bonds without consequence" like Bauman describes (Bell, 258), but not for all. Bell writes, based off Giddens, that it might be possible to rewrite peg communities as pure communities as collectives entered into with eyes-wide-open, not stumbled into blinded by tradition and obligation (258).
In the end I agree with Bell, "who are we to say that what someone names a community isn't what we think w a community should look like?" (Bell, 261). Even if we don't give our full identity, we are still engaging in one, which makes us a part of it regardless. There are no rules that say how much of one's identity must be given for the community to remain true, or exist.
Bell, David, and Barbara M. Kennedy. eds. The Cybercultures Reader. 2nd Ed. London:
Routledge. 254-264. Print.
Design21: Social Design Network
http://jump.dexigner.com/directory/9389
deviantArt
http://jump.dexigner.com/directory/7266
Cataci
http://jump.dexigner.com/directory/13251
These are all design communities. I picked these sites because I am a designer and it is a nice way for other designers to come together and play off eachother's creativity and knowledge, as well as give/offer great resources for creativity and/or career advancement. These different communities offer different things for different designers that could, and are greatly beneficial, but all have design in mind as the common thread.
As social networking plays an important and prominent role in my life. I still don't give my full "self" or identity on it, I only give a part of who I am. Little snipets and tidbits of my life, or of my identity. Mostly on facebook my statuses are about school, work, and every now and again my home life. But these are only part of my identity at that particular moment of my life when I update. That is not who I am at every second, every moment of my being. Only those who know me in real life know my true identity, but even in that sense, it's not my full identity, just what they are allowed to know or see about me. But my social/virtual communities are an extension of who I am, nonetheless.
For some people, yes, virtual communities are "peg communities" that are "bonds without consequence" like Bauman describes (Bell, 258), but not for all. Bell writes, based off Giddens, that it might be possible to rewrite peg communities as pure communities as collectives entered into with eyes-wide-open, not stumbled into blinded by tradition and obligation (258).
In the end I agree with Bell, "who are we to say that what someone names a community isn't what we think w a community should look like?" (Bell, 261). Even if we don't give our full identity, we are still engaging in one, which makes us a part of it regardless. There are no rules that say how much of one's identity must be given for the community to remain true, or exist.
Bell, David, and Barbara M. Kennedy. eds. The Cybercultures Reader. 2nd Ed. London:
Routledge. 254-264. Print.
Design21: Social Design Network
http://jump.dexigner.com/directory/9389
deviantArt
http://jump.dexigner.com/directory/7266
Cataci
http://jump.dexigner.com/directory/13251
These are all design communities. I picked these sites because I am a designer and it is a nice way for other designers to come together and play off eachother's creativity and knowledge, as well as give/offer great resources for creativity and/or career advancement. These different communities offer different things for different designers that could, and are greatly beneficial, but all have design in mind as the common thread.
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